Author
Topic: Dave's Galaxy (Read 152268 times)

I've added a couple advantages to new players -- capital defense (the red dashed ring), and reduced costs for ships. I'll also be adding some damping factors for older empires.

Yeah, lots of people have multiple accounts -- I don't love it, but trying to stop people from doing it is basically impossible (well, it would limit multiple accounts to people who are clever-er than most), so I only allow random initial placement, etc... Which at least keeps most of the multiple accounts from joining up.

Well unless they are willing to travel to combine their forces, or they have enough time to just keep creating accounts till they get some that are close by each other.

Regarding exponential growth:Basing a game on mechanics that both allow exponential growth /and/ make it an important factor is a mistake in my eyes. A game is enjoyable (to me at least) if I have to make choices. Learning the possibilities, then deciding on which path to take, then adapting that path....that is gaming for me.

To me a good player should be able to 'overcome' (not necessarily defeat but have an impact on) a mediocre player, even if the former has a smaller econonmic base (however that is calculated).

If exponential growth is included as a main design choice then the most important factor to survival will not be diplomacy, strategy or tactics but both an early start and continued growth.

I would therefore be very much interested (as a player who does not / is not able to use scripts) to see limitations on exponential growth. For example:1) Speed of arcs = 1 / (total number of arcs / 3). Thus a few arcs would be reach a lot faster than2) cost of arcs (steel) = 8000 * (1 + total number of arcs / 10) 3) combat power (I know far too little about combat as I was a 60 planet 'empire' in the previous galaxy who never fought a real war) should favor smaller players considerably.

Combine this with options where diplomacy gives a player an advantage...for example being able to use other players planets as bases to resupply, being able to use 'wormholes' of other players if allowed...meaning, make /position/ a factor (not 'only' time-to-destination) that has importance.

I do not know if this meshes with Daves idea on how his game should develop but maybe some of the above is of use.

@Tan_Serrai - limits on exponential growth should make sense. In BattleMaster, realm sizes are somewhat limited by internal politics, organisational overhead and the fact that recruitment can only happen in the capital (thus, the larger the realm, the longer it takes to reach any of your frontlines with fresh troops).

In DG, limits that would make sense is some kind of bureaucracy overhead, or maintainance costs for communications networks, etc. that simply grow exponentially as well.

And then there's the question if Dave sees it as a problem at all. What I consider troublesome is that beyond a certain point (where I lost interest in the last round), you simply need scripting to manage your empire. I think if that is what the game is about, then it should offer those automation options itself, to create a level playing field. Otherwise it'll become a game of "who can write the better empire management script".

@Tan_Serrai - limits on exponential growth should make sense. In BattleMaster, realm sizes are somewhat limited by internal politics, organisational overhead and the fact that recruitment can only happen in the capital (thus, the larger the realm, the longer it takes to reach any of your frontlines with fresh troops).

In DG, limits that would make sense is some kind of bureaucracy overhead, or maintainance costs for communications networks, etc. that simply grow exponentially as well.

And then there's the question if Dave sees it as a problem at all. What I consider troublesome is that beyond a certain point (where I lost interest in the last round), you simply need scripting to manage your empire. I think if that is what the game is about, then it should offer those automation options itself, to create a level playing field. Otherwise it'll become a game of "who can write the better empire management script".

I plan to offer some scripts this round for Greasemonkey to automate large empire maintenance. Might give them to Dave first so he can okay them with respect to server load.

Please do. <3 I've been playing days and I'm already getting to the point where its becoming a hassle to micromanage every colony and the literally 50 or so fleets I have in the air right now. Add that to the defensive armada I want on every single colony, the dozen scouts I have in the air right now, the few blackwhatevers I have floating about, and more, and it becomes utterly hectic to keep track of.

Please do. <3 I've been playing days and I'm already getting to the point where its becoming a hassle to micromanage every colony and the literally 50 or so fleets I have in the air right now. Add that to the defensive armada I want on every single colony, the dozen scouts I have in the air right now, the few blackwhatevers I have floating about, and more, and it becomes utterly hectic to keep track of.

Well back then my attack strategy for hitting overlapping PD relied on 20-30 fleets of 100 battleships attacking each planet. So I created a script that defined Armada's which were basically a holder for multiple fleets, and I could send armada's around just like fleets, the script would send all the needed move commands for each fleet.

Did the game reset? I totally forgot about it, and then when browsing for something, it came up. So I logged in, to check on how many of my arcs had arrived to the edge of the galaxy. Only to be shown a new planet with "you are here", a different GUI, and nothing I recognize. If it was reset, when and why?

Logged

Gustav Kuriga

5 colonies in I already feel bored. Interesting. The game needs more automation so you can focus on the fun stuff. The first thing on my list would be colony default plans, detailing what upgrades get built everywhere and what tax and trade settings to use. That way I could fire and forget arcs.

Problem is the same as any build-up game: it's just the same thing all over again.

5 colonies in I already feel bored. Interesting. The game needs more automation so you can focus on the fun stuff. The first thing on my list would be colony default plans, detailing what upgrades get built everywhere and what tax and trade settings to use. That way I could fire and forget arcs.

Problem is the same as any build-up game: it's just the same thing all over again.

When I get some time to add a proper GUI to it I will release a script that does just this. It will probably only work with Chrome though, chances are 50/50 for firefox. To prevent a massive load on Dave's server I use a local database to store planet data. Problem here is I have to estimate the society/population increases for every planet which can be a bit inaccurate at the moment.